WhatIEat#39

These nuts are my new favorite thing! So addicting.
What's special about them? I soaked all of them, and sprouted the almonds (which just required a longer soaking). Pictured are  almonds with the peels intact, black sesame seeds, pecans, and "naked" almonds. It's very easy to pop the almonds out of their skins after they've been soaking for two days. Soaking the nuts is important, especially when you're trying to heal your gut, because it makes them much more digestible, due to reducing enzyme inhibitors and phytic acid, and making the nutrients more available to your body. I am truly amazed at the difference it has made for me! I have been eating quite a few of these nuts every day, because they are SO delicious this way, and I have not had any indigestion due to it. And it is so easy too. I fill about a third of a quart size mason jar with nuts pour in about a tablespoon of salt and then fill the jar with lukewarm water. And then you just let it sit on the counter overnight. You can rinse in between and fill with fresh water if you want but don't have to. I let my almonds soak for two days actually, but overnight is long enough if you're in a hurry. Once the nuts have soaked, drain and rinse them, pat dry, and then you need to dry them thoroughly. I don't have a dehydrator at the moment (hopefully soon!) so I use my oven. My oven will go as low as 170, and most resources will say ideally you dry the nuts at no higher than 150 to preserve all the good enzymes and nutrients, but you just have to do your best. It's better to have soaked the nuts and then dry them a littler warmer and lose some of the nutrients than to eat unsoaked nuts. I didn't season my nuts, but because they are soaked in salt water that actually gives them a really nice flavor; sometimes when salt is sprinkled on things it ends up being overpowering and what you mainly taste, but soaking the nuts is salt water enhances the natural flavor and gives them a very mild saltiness.
I ordered raw, organic, unpasteurized nuts from Amazon. You want to make sure you get good quality nuts for maximum nutrition and flavor, and also because some companies use different procedures that coat the nuts with harmful chemicals, or that destroy the nutrients and actually can cause the good fats to oxidize which is not healthy at all. I did try to make almond butter but it wasn't successful, and I ended up with homemade almond meal. But that turned out to be a happy accident, because I had so much almond meal that I decided to attempt to make some bread. I has been months since I had any bread, and wow! I was so excited with how well it turned out.

Here is my SIBO safe bread. I made two mini loaves since I didn't want to make too much at once in case it didn't turn out well, and also because sometimes paleo bread has a hard time rising, and mini loaf pans will usually help with that.
This bread was loosely based on a recipe from Danielle Walker of Against All Grain, a paleo blog and cookbook author. But I didn't have or want to use all the ingredients she called for and also wanted to make a smaller amount of batter.  I am so pleased that it didn't turn out overly eggy tasting, which often happens with paleo breads. It also has a really nice, light, not too dry or crumbly texture, which also can be hard to achieve, especially since there is no starch in this recipe. I want to make it again before I post the recipe, but hopefully I can post it soon. I have been enjoying it immensely with butter and sometimes honey or almond butter. So nice to have some bread again!

Lovely breakfast of soft boiled eggs, leftover steamed broccoli with a sprinkle of pecorino romano cheese, and two slices of my bread with Trader Joe's French butter and a special almond butter I got off Amazon.com that has been soaked and sprouted, and it is so tasty.

Sophie named this soup Spinach Delight. It has spinach, kale, ground turkey, butternut squash, parsley, chives, sage, turmeric, and homemade bone broth.
I made this for dinner and it was so nice to sit down and eat the same thing as the rest of the family. It gets a little lonely always having to eat an entirely different meal than everyone else.
I made a big batch, of course, so I had leftovers ready to go for quick meals for myself. I enjoyed this particular bowl of soup with some homemade, buttered graham crackers while Brian and the kids were out one evening with friends.

Breakfast- My bread with butter and honey, leftover Brussels sprouts, turkey patty, and soft boiled egg. These Brussels are so, so good! I get them from Trader Joe's, frozen, for 99 cents a bag, and they are the best sprouts I've ever had. Even though I cook them thoroughly, which usually ruins them, these little green guys still taste so yummy and a little sweet even. I especially love them tossed in ghee and a little grated pecorino romano cheese. MMM!
And yes, I can now eat some Brussels sprouts and broccoli and I am so happy about it it's silly...Lol But I have really missed certain veggies so much while on the SIBO specific diet, so its exciting and encouraging to be able to start adding foods back in and not get an upset tummy. Yay!

More Spinach Delight soup, with extra turmeric and some black sesame seeds to make it pretty.

A big plate full of steamed mixed veg with a little sheep cheese and some lovely eggs with creamy yolks, and a little bit of tuna with avocado mayo and mustard. Some people get their comfy sweatpants on and grab all the junk food and go and binge watch TV. I have my comfies on, but I this is my favorite kind of food to eat now..so satisfying and nourishing. And I binge watch YouTube Lol

I eat so much fish now. It's so nutritious and easy to digest, and it cooks really fast, even from frozen, so it's good option for me since I can easily make it while cooking my family their meal. (Sometimes they eat fish with me too)
I like to gently cook my fish with some herbs and butter. Dried chives and dried parsley are my go-to herbs for salmon and cod both. Make sure you keep it moist and don't overcook it.

Cod and mixed steamed veggies. There's a couple beets in there this time. I don't love beets but I need to try to get as much variety as possible and also beets are good for you. :)

Cinnamon Muffins. These were my main treat through the most intense part of the SIBO diet. Sticking to any restrictive diet is always easier if you have at least one compliant treat; it really does wonders for your morale and discipline. It was super difficult to find a recipe for anything that was allowed on the diet that I was following. These muffins are from a recipe on Danielle Walker's blog Against All Grain, but the original recipe is actually called Caramel Glazed Donuts. I omit the glaze entirely and bake the donut part in a muffin tin and sprinkle the muffins with cinnamon. I also used less honey than the recipe called for and they still turned out good.

Our family went on vacation to Las Vegas a couple weeks ago. We had a great time swimming and laying in the sunshine (when it was around) and visiting with my sister and her family who met us there. We stayed at a resort our family had been to before because we knew they had nice rooms, complete with a full kitchen. That really made it so much nicer for me, eating-wise...as in, I don't know what I would have done without a kitchen to make my own meals. I decided to take a checked bag on the plane so that I would be able to bring along a bunch of "safe" and homemade food items, and that was so helpful. definitely recommend doing that if you have diet concerns when travelling. It made it much less stressful knowing I had food that wouldn't make me sick and ruin my vacation.
With four little kids between our two families, there wasn't much relaxing time, but I did get to eat one of my breakfasts out on the balcony in peace and quiet. Scrambled eggs with spinach and a cinnamon muffin with the good almond butter.

Our two families usually ate lunches and dinners together. One night, I made grilled chicken, roasted rainbow baby carrots, and steamed broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Definitely a crowd-pleaser.

The "salad" in this picture was made by Sophie.

I have a book on foraging wild plants, which has always interested me, and I love to be able to name the weeds and plants when we go on family walks,  and Sophie has really gotten into it too.
So one day, she comes in and tells me she is making a salad for lunch. She picked dandelion leaves, sheep sorrel, and chickweed, and then she washed it and dried it using several bowls and towels. Then she divided her greens into three bowls and carefully grated one baby carrot over them, added a little avocado oil, and a sprinkle of pec. romano cheese and a drizzle of my honey mustard dressing.
She did it with so much love and care, and it was so sweet and cute. She was so proud of herself. And then we all took a bite...I think Sophie was the most disappointed. Dandelion leaves are pretty bitter Lol. But I told her, honestly, that it was the best tasting bite of dandelion greens I'd ever had. " Yeah," she said, "maybe next time I will just stick with lettuce and it will be better." Lol I'm proud of her though for being adventurous and creative.

Yum.yum.yum.
My breakfast this morning with leftover veggies- sprouts, kale and purple carrot, leftover fishcakes with honey mustard sauce, my bread with butter, and some lemon water.

Homemade Graham Crackers.

I eat a double batch of these every week now.
Recipe is from Danielle Walker again. I actually use her Honey Graham Cracker Pie Crust Recipe, and just roll it out, score it and bake it into crackers. Works great!

These Tahini Cookies are based on a recipe from Castaway Kitchen, another paleo&keto blogger I follow. Her recipe offered a lot of suggestions for different ingredient substitutions, so I was able to make a version that I could eat. I would add less salt next time, since I found these particular cookies to be a little salty for my taste, but you should definitely give them a try if you're looking for a low carb, easy and tasty cookie recipe.